beggars

it’s a day off – ascension. the month of may has 3 holidays in france. their own labor day, victory 1945 day and ascension. (pentecost?) when we were living here before, i remember one may had 3 long weekends out of 4. but the french don’t usually “carry over” holidays. so if a holiday falls on a sunday, they don’t get the monday off. so this year, all the holidays seem to fall on a sunday. this one, though is on a thursday, so the french will take the friday off (called the “pont” or “the bridge”), making it a 4 day weekend. they all head out somewhere and the traffic is crazy. i was listening to the radio yesterday and was very glad i wasn’t travelling.

this morning, i took maynard for his morning run. on the way back i went to our local bakery, (which happens to be famous – it is VERY good). there is a regular beggar there, an older man. the beggars tend to sit next to bakery doors or bank cash machines. having lived in new york for years during the 80’s, i don’t normally give money to beggars. but this one got me. they all say hello, but one day, he said it in such a way, maybe i was too close, that i had to say bonjour back. after that, he had me. i felt obliged to give him money whenever i walked by him. i had a discussion with p about how much you should give a beggar, if you should give money at all. his view was that one should give a substantial amount (like 20) or none, that it was pointless to give a little change. (just to point out here, also, that p believes that when you go to a casino, you should put all your money on one bet because, he insists, you have the same odds as when you spread out your bets, and it wastes less time. he also has the boy shopping style which is, if he’s looking for a pair of pants and he goes in a shop and they have a pair of pants that fits, he buys it.) anyway, i used to give this guy my little change, equaling less than 1 euro. then i started giving him a 1 euro piece. i tried to calculate how much money this guy was making, because i would see him for a day or 2 and then he would disappear for a while. someone else would take his post, but then he’d be back the next week. he seemed to have a schedule and i figured he made enough money in a few days to take a break. i asked p how often he thought someone came into the bakery. he said, “all the time” maybe every 30 seconds. in fact, when i paid attention, i saw that in the morning, they STREAM into the bakery. and a good percentage of them give the guy money. this morning i saw him again, at the bakery. the guy in front of me greeted him, familiarly and said, “j’arrive” – meaning “i’ll be right back to give you my regular donation”. i decided that i was giving him too much money when he saw me coming, and practically leaped up to say enthusiastically “ah, BONJOUR, madame!”. i had to laugh out loud.

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